In June, the 29-year-old actress deleted her Instagram account after months of online harassment from racist and sexist trolls. Many of her Star Wars: The Last Jedi colleagues, including director Rian Johnson and co-stars John Boyega and Mark Hamill, came to her aid. But Tran never explained why she abruptly abandoned the social media platform—until now.

Tran, who will reprise her role as Rose Tico in next year's Star Wars: Episode IX, wrote an essay for The New York Times recounting a lifetime of being marginalized due to her gender and Vietnamese heritage. Tran, whose parents are refugees, was born and raised in San Diego, Calif.

"It wasn't their words, it's that I started to believe them," the actress began. "Their words seemed to confirm what growing up as a woman and a person of color already taught me: that I belonged in margins and spaces, valid only as a minor character in their lives and stories. And those words awakened something deep inside me—a feeling I thought I had grown out of."